From Muskoka Steamships and Discovery Centre:
In 1903, Polson Iron Works built Mildred, a 21 metre (70 ft.) steam yacht for E. R. Wood. He cottaged on Lake Rosseau, and named the boat for his daughter. In 1921, the yacht was purchased by Captain Wesley Archer who used her for sightseeing cruises from Bracebridge. After Archer’s death in 1946, she was sold to Ralph McPherson who continued to offer cruises. In 1961, while on a cruise, Mildred burned on the Muskoka River. MacPherson rebuilt Mildred using steel. She was owned by four other people and is now being refurbished with the hopes of cruising the Muskoka lakes again.
In 1954, her triple-expansion steam engine was replaced by a diesel engine. Roy Davies, a Bracebridge machinist found her original rusty steam engine in a barn in 1993. He beautifully restored the engine and adapted a drive to turn it over. It was displayed at the former Steamship Museum and is now at the Muskoka Discovery Centre in Gravenhurst.
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